Australian Palaeozoic palaeomagnetism and tectonics—I. Tectonostratigraphic terrane constraints from the Tasman Fold Belt

Abstract

The Tasman Fold Belt (TFB) of Eastern Australia can be divided into three meridional orogenic realms: the Kanmantoo, Lachlan-Thomson and New England Orogens. The geological histories of the orogens overlap, but each is distinctive. The Kanmantoo Orogen was provenance-linked to the Australian craton in the Early Cambrian, and accreted to Australia by Late Cambrian. There are many possible tectonostratigraphic terranes in the Lachlan Fold Belt (LFB) but these can be simplified to two major amalgamated terranes by the Middle Silurian. All the LFB terranes appear provenance-linked in the Ordovician, and were progressively covered, from the west, during the Late Silurian to Late Devonian, by a quartzose overlap assemblage. The New England Orogen has a fragmentary Early Palaeozoic history, but from the Devonian onwards its geology is related to a series of volcanic island and continental margin magmatic arcs. There is some evidence of provenance-linking between the Lachlan and New England Orogens in the Devono-Carboniferous but docking is not demonstrated until the mid-Carboniferous. The few reliable pre-Late Carboniferous palaeomagnetic poles available from the TFB come from the eastern LFB. The poles post-date accretion of the LFB to the Australian craton. Thus, the possibility that parts of the Lachlan-Thomson and New England Orogens contain exotic elements is yet to be tested palaeomagnetically.